Put on your winter hair

My hair is darker now, thanks to two bottles of grocery store hair dye. I like it pretty well. My coworker calls it my winter hair. She put on her winter hair a few days after I did. Why, you may ask, am I all bundled up like this?

This should probably explain it. It's what I walk out of my house to most mornings to go to work. The temperature is still typically in the 20s when I leave my house at 8:00.

And no, this didn't just start. It's been going on for a few weeks now. Did I mention, "I LOVE BUTTE!" ???

And you thought Kevin was a big piece of meat!

My first roast. Practicing for Kevin. Props to Joy of Cooking.

Mince garlic. Rub into ginormous slab of meat. Salt and pepper. Brown each side for a few minutes. Remove from pan. Add onions, cook until brown in roasting pan.

Add super secret special ingredients for the sweet and sour sauce. Scrape off the brown bits from the bottom of pan while cooking.

Put the meat back in and smother it. Cover it tightly with aluminum foil. Bake for 2-3 hours.


Uncover, let cool. Refridgerate for a day, then rewarm for 30 minutes before serving.

I'm excited to make this when Kevin comes for two reasons: 1) it's delicious, 2) I can't eat a 3.5 lb roast by myself -- I've been chipping away at this one for a week and still have more than half of it in my fridge. What? It's the smallest one the grocery store had! And it's what the recipe called for. Actually, the recipe is for brisket, but there was none of that to be found.

The bestest (almost) husband ever

Cheryl (Kevin's mom) tagged me to write about my husband-to-be on my blog. Here goes!

1. Where did you meet your husband? At a George Mason University Men's volleyball game. There was a big group of single adults there. Kevin walked in a few minutes after my group of friends had gotten there and I definitely noticed his tallness, darkness, and handsomeness.

2. How long did you date before you got married? Just 20 days shy of a year!

3. How long have you been married? Negative 40 days

4. What does he do that surprises you? Sends flowers to my work on random occasions, sends me funny videos on my phone, like one of him doing his "Conference is about to start" dance. :)

5. What is your favorite feature of his? I think it might have to be his big manly pecs... or the dimple on his chin.

6. What is his best quality? His love for his family, the Lord, and me. He's also a great listener.

7. Does he have a nickname for you? All kinds! Jeebers, Jeebs, Love, Lover, Babe, Beautiful, Principessa, Sexy Girlfriend, Sexy Fiance, Jeebermeister

8. What is his favorite food? Probably Mozzarella di Buffala and/or other Italian yumminess. Close seconds would be a really juicy fresh peach, or Cafe Rio's Pork Burrito with extra pork

9. What is his favorite sport? To play: Ultimate Frisbee. To watch: College football

10. When and where did you first kiss? I love this story. [If you want to read more about our history as a couple, go to the very first (oldest) post on our blog.] We had only had one date (the day after Christmas, 2007) and had been keeping in touch over the phone because we lived in separate states. We planned to spend Kevin's spring break together in Arizona, with stops planned in Sedona, Tucson, and the Grand Canyon. We both thought our first kiss would be in the Phoenix airport because that's where he picked me up. I believe it was March 9th. However, Kevin developed a cold a few days before our trip and still wasn't feeling completely better by the time he got me at the airport. So we hugged a lot. He helped me carry my luggage to our rental car, and we set off driving to Sedona. Somewhere along the ride, maybe an hour and half into it, we started hinting that maybe his cold was no longer contagious. The tension was mounting. We were approaching a rest stop along the highway and Kevin asked me if I needed to stop. I said yes. He said he did too. We pulled off and parked the car. He asked if I needed to get out. I said no. He said he didn't either. And the rest is history! (P.S. I didn't catch the cold)

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Um, BE TOGETHER?!?! It's something that has been a rarity thus far in our relationship. We have fun doing outdoor adventures together. But mostly we are always just dying to be in the same state. We also like to spoon... Left side, strong side. :)

12. Do you have any children? Yes, they just haven't been conceived or born yet.

13. Does he have any hidden talents? He makes a killer lasagna -- Italian style. And he knows all sorts of random facts about all sorts of random members of the animal kingdom.

14. How old is he? 29 years old. Four years older than I am, which is the magic interval for falling in love.

15. Who said 'I love you' first? As we were standing together, overlooking the Grand Canyon, enjoying a moment of pure and simple joy, Kevin started laughing. I asked him what he was laughing about and he didn't want to tell me at first. Then he said something along the lines of how natural it felt to be with me, that our relationship had progressed to this point and it was technically only our second date, and finished with, "I think I love you." I replied with, "You think?" We laughed. He confirmed that he did indeed love me and I was relieved to have it finally out in the open since we had both been wanting to say it for a few weeks.

16. What is his favorite music? His favorite band is Counting Crows. He likes a lot of rock/alternative genre. We have basically the same taste in music, which is convenient. Except I like a lot of musicals and other random things that he probably doesn't enjoy quite as much. Most importantly, we both hate country, so neither one of us has to torture the other with that.

17. What do you admire most about him? That he has lived the kind of life he has up to this point. His mom always mentions how good of a kid he was, and that she never had to worry about him growing up. He is so honest that when he and his friends would play sports and there was any question about officiating a call (out vs. safe, etc.) they would ask Kevin because they knew he wouldn't lie even if it hurt his team. He is such a loving uncle to his 10 nieces and nephews, and they light up when he comes to visit them. He served an honorable mission, has a testimony of the gospel, and has worked hard in his life to gain an education that will be invaluable to him and our future family. He chose the profession of dentistry because he knew it would allow him to provide for a family, as well as give him plenty of time off in order to spend time with his wife and kids as they grow up. He has his priorities in order, and he loves me with all his heart. I am so lucky to be marrying such a wonderful man. Plus, he's kind of dorky like my dad, which is very endearing and makes me laugh.

18. What is his favorite color? He likes earth tones. I think his favorite is green, but I haven't asked him in a while.

19. Will he read this? He certainly will, as soon as he realizes there's a new post up.

20. Who do you tag? Brittney, Autumn, and my mom.

More nesting

I spent the last several weeks decorating my house with various projects and pictures to make it ready for Kevin when he joins me in December. I'm pretty excited about a lot of the decorations I put up, but I can't feature them yet because I want them to be a surprise for Kevin. Now that I'm done with that, I felt I needed something else to keep my hands and mind busy while I wait for the days to d...r...a...g... by until my wedding.

So, true to form, I'm doing something that makes me even MORE excited to be married -- getting ready for motherhood. I looked online for a while to find a gender-neutral baby quilt that would be fun to make. I've been wanting to experiment with fabric appliques, practice my hand-sewing skills, and also try hand-quilting for the first time. This is the kind of project that could take months to finish, so I can even work on it in the spring when Kevin and I are separated again.

Here's the quilt I found. Just a picture -- no pattern. And I couldn't even blow up the picture. I printed this off and brought it to the fabric store with me, wandered around, decided on my fabric choices, and proceeded to carry about twelve bolts of fabric to the cutting center, two-by-two. Then I had to make up measurements for my quilt and tell the lady how much to cut for me. It was actually pretty fun, although I was in the fabric store for over an hour.


I decided to do the animal faces in felt and the background squares in cotton. It saved me money. Then I had to draw all the animal faces and features on paper and then cut them out of the felt. I'm going to hand-applique all the felt pieces to the background squares, so I cut them with a half-inch border all the way around, which is why the pieces look larger an fatter than they do on the original picture. I have all the fabric cut out, which took probably four hours, and now I get to start the sewing. I might not post a finished product until well into next year, so don't hold your breath. :)

(this picture was taken with my cell phone -- sorry about the sideways-ness and the big shadow)

I'm excited to wrap up the first kevypoo junior or baby jeebers in a soft, cuddly quilt. He he.

Happy National Midwifery* Week

*(pronounced mid-"whiff"-ery; not mid-"wife"-ery.)

That's right, folks. October 5-11. Go hug a midwife.

For those of you interested, here's a brief history of nurse-midwifery in the United States. When I graduated from my program at Georgetown, we had a "blessing of the hands" ceremony. The graduating students formed a circle inside a larger circle of midwives already in practice. Each was paired off with a member of the profession who would welcome them to midwifery. There was a silver bowl of holy water (Georgetown is a Catholic university) and a silver ladle used to bless each of our hands as we embarked upon our careers of service to women and children.

The midwife I was paired with was Kitty Ernst, the current president of the American College of Nurse-Midwives. It's funny because she's probably shorter than 5 feet and I had to bend my head down to hear her. The ladle that was used had special significance in the history of nurse-midwives because it was a wedding gift given to Hattie Hemschemeyer (read about her in the history) and was passed from her to Kitty Ernst as a symbol of gratitude for what she had done to carry nurse-midwifery into the 21st century. Very cool.

Me and Kitty... I have my knees bent almost to a 90 degree angle in the picture below so I could be a comparable height. She actually only came up to just above my elbow. An awesome lady. When she was holding my hands in hers for the ceremony, I could tell from her touch that she is an amazing midwife. There is a presence some people can convey through touch, and she definitely had that presence.

My fellow graduates are now working as midwives too. I love swapping stories with them and commiserating about the insecurities and frustrations of working as new-grad midwives. I feel so blessed to be a part of this profession and am grateful that I went to the program I did, and met so many wonderful women in the process!

I celebrate that I am one of over 7000 Certified Nurse Midwives in practice today, and hope that number continues to grow.